New Orleans Jazz Half Marathon Recap Part 2 of 2

Jazz Half Recap Part 1

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I left off with the first installment of the Jazz Half Marathon as the buzzer/gun/whatever it was made a noise for us to start running!



We were off!  I started my Garmin and tried to keep an easy even pace!



The line of people broke up not too far out of the start line which was nice!  It’s not like that in Disney at all. That’s ok though cause I LOVE Disney races!! :0) 

Someone made a sign on poster board and was holding it up right after we crossed the start line.  I found it to be quite amusing! It said .1 down, 13 more to go!  Hah!

At first, we were able to keep a 10:30 pace or so.  After a while, the crowd of runners picked up and we were running at an 8:00 pace. At one point, I looked down and my watch said 7:50…not sure how accurate that is, but whatever the case, I KNEW we had to slow down!  We moved to one side and slowed our pace way down.  The crowd of runners slowed down and thinned out also and that was nice.

As I said before, Jazz Half was encouraging costumes…and there were quite a few of those!



Here’s Batman and Robin! :0)

At first, I was worried that people wouldn’t “get” our costumes. I was totally wrong.  From the moment we arrived at the start line, we had a ton of compliments!  It was really neat!  The Roller Derby Girls who started off the race with us and became cheerleaders on the sidelines REALLY loved our costumes. You could hear them after we passed saying “Aww cute!” Hah!



Running through Downtown New Orleans was beautiful!  I really enjoyed the sights and the weather was PERFECT!



Loved this! :0)



We made it to Mile 2….first water stop!  Oh my gosh this was the hottest water EVER!  Ewww it was nasty!  I hoped that this wasn’t a trend for the entire race. Thank goodness it wasn’t!



I found Waldo!  Can you?  :0)



Kayla and I along the course!




 

I LOVED the back of her shirt! 

We both took GU’s around mile 4. I brought my Espresso Love and my Blueberry Roctane cause I figured I’d need the extra boost with the lack of Gatorade!



The guy in orange was passing the 10.5 mile mark on his way to the finish line as we were passing mile 5!  Insane!  He won the race with a time of 1 hour and 11 minutes!



The sideline cheer leaders were just as funny in costume as some of the racers!

 

Loved the sights of this race!



We made it to Mile 6!  Halfway there!!



Running into Audubon Park!  This place was gorgeous!!!



I loved it in here!  Wish I lived closer to NOLA so I could run here more!

 

We passed mile 8 in the park…It was about this  mile when I tried to move my legs and bend my knees and I felt a sharp pain in my right knee. My mind immediately went to my last Half Marathon that I ran with Laura and how her knee gave her problems at mile 8 (we walked the rest of that race). I didn’t want that to happen again, so I stopped and stretched a little. I think my knee just needed to bend. It was fixated in the same way for over an hour….it got very stiff!  After walking it out for a few seconds, it felt better so we ran again and it was fine!  Thank goodness!

This was also the first time we received Gatorade!  They had water stops every 2 miles of this race and the Gatorade came in at Mile 8. I’m not used to training like that so I was worried it would hinder me.  I was fine, though. No problems! :0)  This water and Gatorade was cold! Yay!



More beautiful sights from the park!



These costumes cracked me up.  At the start, there was a group of about 6 of these people.  They were the “Who Dat” runners…4 girls and 2 guys. They all wore tutu’s made out of black and gold tulle.  I can’t get my husband to even walk a 5K much less run a Half Marathon in a tutu. Pretty cool!



I loved this house!!!

 

Finally to mile 12!!!



It was at this time that I kind of picked up the pace and I feel bad now for doing that. Kayla was trying to keep up with me and was shooting me “I hate you” glances every change she could get! Hah!  I kept encouraging her and trying to keep her going.  She couldn’t quit now!  She had come too far!  Did I mention this was her first half?  Oh…I didn’t!  This was Kayla’s first Half Marathon!



As we rounded the corner, we saw a blue figure standing on a boulder.  Who is that?!  What is that?!



Oh my goodness…it’s Jesus. I think I’ve about seen it all!  Yes, Jesus…we are still running…we see the light now!!  The finish line is in view!!!



Brian was back at the finish line and he got a picture of Heather finishing the race.



Go Heather go!



For the last .6 miles or so, I had to loop arms with Kayla to keep her going. We really pushed hard that last mile.



I was all smiles and she was…well…not all smiles! lol



We crossed the finish line strong at 2 hours and 30 minutes!  That’s an amazing time for Kayla considering this was her first Half Marathon!  My Half Marathon PR time is 2 hours and 28 minutes which I know can be MUCH faster since I felt so great this entire race! I still feel guilty for pushing Kayla so hard.  She ran her 12 mile training run in 3 hours at home and this race she finished in 2 hours and 30 minutes.



After crossing the finish, we got our medals and that’s when Kayla started to cry. The Doctor came over and gave her some water and the tears wouldn’t stop.  She was really upset!  The Doctor and Nurse were worried about her but she kept telling them that she was fine…she wasn’t hurting, she was just overwhelmed with emotion that she had finished her first Half Marathon.  She has quite a story behind that……I’ll let her tell it. Check out her blog when you get a chance.

 

13.1!  My fourth Half Marathon! I did it and felt great doing it! I know next time I can really push myself harder to run faster and PR!  So excited about that!



With our medals!

 

After the race, getting our grub on! :0)



With a Mardi Gras Krew King!



Heather found us after the race! Yay!

 

Waiting for the awards



The roller derby girls.

This brings me back to our costumes.  The roller derby girls were the first to comment on them….

We also heard a lot of people saying our names since they were on the backs of our shirts!
A few people asked us if we were the girls from A League of their Own.
Lots of “CUTE!  Great costumes, girls!” 

One guy asked us which one was Rosie and which one was Madonna!  I told him that I tried to get my brother to be Tom Hanks our “Manager” but he wouldn’t go for that! Hah!

However, the funniest comment by far was from a race worker on a bike.  She rode by us and told us that our butts looked GREAT in our skirts!  She continued to say that she had seen her fair share of butts in skirts that morning and ours by far looked the best!  HAHAHAH!  We got a good laugh out of that one!

Another strange/funky comment was from a woman on the sidelines…she said “Look!  Here comes the Tennis queens!”  TENNIS?!  Ok…..  Someone corrected her and told her who we were! lol

After getting our grub on and watching a few awards, we decided to part ways and shower/change.  We had plans to meet back up later for Cafe du Monde!  Yay!



Kayla and I showered and ready to meet up with Heather and Bobby!  We of course wore our medals downtown!



The line for Cafe du Monde wasn’t too bad.  We had a guy ask us if this was the line for Cafe du Mond-ey.  The “e” is silent!  We had a good laugh over that one!



Yummy Beignets (ben-yays) and frozen coffee!!! 



A close-up of our medal. 

After eating, we walked back to our hotels and went our separate ways!  We had tickets for our hometown college’s football game that night!  It was their homecoming game and we couldn’t miss it!



The Superdome as we were leaving!  We wished the Saints good luck on Sunday and made our way home!

  

We made one more stop on our way home, though….that was at Chick-Fil-A! I love me some Chick-Fil-A but I NEVER get it so I was really excited for this!!!

A final thought about the race……

I am excited about how good I felt at the end of the race.  This past February, when I was only training for Half Marathons, I thought I was going to DIE when we crossed the finish line cause we had pushed hard and PR’d at 2hours and 28minutes!  This race, I felt awesome at 2hours and 30minutes and that really excites me!  I know I can possibly run the entire race faster next time!  Now that I’ve been running much longer mileage and training for a Full Marathon, I think that’s really made a difference in my pace!  Even though I said I would never put pressure on myself to PR in a Half Marathon again….I’m changing my mind.  I was SO CLOSE to a PR that I can’t help it!  I have the PR taste in my mouth! Hah!  I’m thinking 2hours and 20minutes?If I can get that, I’ll be happy!!